.\" Copyright (c) 2001-2003 The Open Group, All Rights Reserved 
.TH "LSTAT" P 2003 "IEEE/The Open Group" "POSIX Programmer's Manual"
.\" lstat 
.SH NAME
lstat \- get symbolic link status
.SH SYNOPSIS
.LP
\fB#include <sys/stat.h>
.br
.sp
int lstat(const char *restrict\fP \fIpath\fP\fB, struct stat *restrict\fP
\fIbuf\fP\fB);
.br
\fP
.SH DESCRIPTION
.LP
The \fIlstat\fP() function shall be equivalent to \fIstat\fP(), except
when \fIpath\fP
refers to a symbolic link. In that case \fIlstat\fP() shall return
information about the link, while \fIstat\fP() shall return information
about the file the link references.
.LP
For symbolic links, the \fIst_mode\fP member shall contain meaningful
information when used with the file type macros, and the
\fIst_size\fP member shall contain the length of the pathname contained
in the symbolic link. File mode bits and the contents of
the remaining members of the \fBstat\fP structure are unspecified.
The value returned in the \fIst_size\fP member is the length
of the contents of the symbolic link, and does not count any trailing
null.
.SH RETURN VALUE
.LP
Upon successful completion, \fIlstat\fP() shall return 0. Otherwise,
it shall return -1 and set \fIerrno\fP to indicate the
error.
.SH ERRORS
.LP
The \fIlstat\fP() function shall fail if:
.TP 7
.B EACCES
A component of the path prefix denies search permission.
.TP 7
.B EIO
An error occurred while reading from the file system.
.TP 7
.B ELOOP
A loop exists in symbolic links encountered during resolution of the
\fIpath\fP argument.
.TP 7
.B ENAMETOOLONG
The length of a pathname exceeds {PATH_MAX} or a pathname component
is longer than {NAME_MAX}.
.TP 7
.B ENOTDIR
A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
.TP 7
.B ENOENT
A component of \fIpath\fP does not name an existing file or \fIpath\fP
is an empty string.
.TP 7
.B EOVERFLOW
The file size in bytes or the number of blocks allocated to the file
or the file serial number cannot be represented correctly
in the structure pointed to by \fIbuf\fP.
.sp
.LP
The \fIlstat\fP() function may fail if:
.TP 7
.B ELOOP
More than {SYMLOOP_MAX} symbolic links were encountered during resolution
of the \fIpath\fP argument.
.TP 7
.B ENAMETOOLONG
As a result of encountering a symbolic link in resolution of the \fIpath\fP
argument, the length of the substituted pathname
string exceeded {PATH_MAX}.
.TP 7
.B EOVERFLOW
One of the members is too large to store into the structure pointed
to by the \fIbuf\fP argument.
.sp
.LP
\fIThe following sections are informative.\fP
.SH EXAMPLES
.SS Obtaining Symbolic Link Status Information
.LP
The following example shows how to obtain status information for a
symbolic link named \fB/modules/pass1\fP. The structure
variable \fIbuffer\fP is defined for the \fBstat\fP structure. If
the \fIpath\fP argument specified the filename for the file
pointed to by the symbolic link ( \fB/home/cnd/mod1\fP), the results
of calling the function would be the same as those returned
by a call to the \fIstat\fP() function.
.sp
.RS
.nf

\fB#include <sys/stat.h>
.sp

struct stat buffer;
int status;
\&...
status = lstat("/modules/pass1", &buffer);
\fP
.fi
.RE
.SH APPLICATION USAGE
.LP
None.
.SH RATIONALE
.LP
The \fIlstat\fP() function is not required to update the time-related
fields if the named file is not a symbolic link. While
the \fIst_uid\fP, \fIst_gid\fP, \fIst_atime\fP, \fIst_mtime\fP, and
\fIst_ctime\fP members of the \fBstat\fP structure may
apply to a symbolic link, they are not required to do so. No functions
in IEEE\ Std\ 1003.1-2001 are required to maintain
any of these time fields.
.SH FUTURE DIRECTIONS
.LP
None.
.SH SEE ALSO
.LP
\fIfstat\fP() , \fIreadlink\fP() , \fIstat\fP()
, \fIsymlink\fP() , the Base Definitions volume of IEEE\ Std\ 1003.1-2001,
\fI<sys/stat.h>\fP
.SH COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .